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In comparing the conditional scholarship universe between the 2011-12 academic year and the 2012-13 academic year (with a brief look at 2013-14) there are a handful of things worth noting.

First, as shown in Table 1, the number of law schools with conditional scholarships declined between 2011-12 and 2012-13 from 144 law schools to 136 law schools, and declined again for the 2013-14 academic year to 128 law schools. The number of law schools that do not have conditional scholarships grew from 49 in 2011-12 to 58 in 2012-13 to 66 in 2013-14. In addition, the number of schools with just one-year scholarships declined from five in 2011-12 to four in 2012-13, where it remained for 2013-14.

Table 1: Changes in Number of Law Schools with Conditional Scholarship Programs

Category

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14 (indications)

Law Schools with Conditional Scholarship Programs

144

136

128

Law Schools with One-Year Scholarships

5

4

4

Law Schools with Scholarships that are not Conditional Scholarships

49

58

66

Second, as shown in Table 2, the number of students receiving conditional scholarships in 2012-13 declined slightly from 2011-12, from 12786 to 12470, but the percentage of first-years with conditional scholarships actually increased from 27.3% to 29.2% (given the smaller number of first-years in 2012-13 compared to 2011-12). That said, the number of students whose scholarships were reduced or eliminated declined from 4359 to 3712, meaning that the percentage of first-years whose scholarships were reduced or eliminated dropped from 9.3% to 8.7%.

*Drawn from first-year enrollment at the 198 law schools included in this analysis (excluding the law schools in Puerto Rico and treating Widener as one law school for these purposes) based on information published in the Standard 509 reports. ** Based on information published in the mandated Conditional Scholarship Retention charts by each law school with a conditional scholarship program.

Third, the distribution of conditional scholarship programs across tiers of law schools is even more pronounced in 2012-13 than it was in 2011-12. Using the USNews rankings from March 2014, only 16 law schools ranked in the top 50 had conditional scholarship programs in 2012-13 and eight of those 16 had a renewal rate of 97% or higher. Three of these law schools also eliminated their conditional scholarship programs as of the fall 2013 entering class. (Moreover, only six in the top 25 had conditional scholarship programs, five of whom had a renewal rate of 97% or higher.)

As you move further down the rankings, conditional scholarship programs become more common and manifest lower scholarship retention rates on average.

Of the 53 law schools ranked between 51 and 100 (with three tied at 100), 37 law schools (nearly 70%) had conditional scholarship programs, of which two eliminated their conditional scholarship programs as of fall 2013. Notably, of the 37 law schools with conditional scholarship programs, eight had a renewal rate of 91% or better (nearly 22%), while seven had a renewal rate of 65% or less (nearly 19%) (with the other 22 (nearly 60%) with renewal rates between 67% and 88%)

For law schools ranked between 104 and 146 (44 law schools in total), 35 law schools (nearly 80%) had conditional scholarship programs, of which three eliminated their conditional scholarship programs as of fall 2013. Notably, of the 35 law schools with conditional scholarship programs, six of the 35 had a renewal rate of 93% or better (roughly 17%) while 16 had a renewal rate of 65% or less (nearly 46%) (with the other 13 (roughly 37%) with renewal rates between 67% and 88%).

Finally, among the unranked schools, 47 of 51 had conditional scholarship programs – over 92% – only five of which had a renewal rate of 91% or better (nearly 11%), while 23 had a renewal rate of 65% or less (nearly 49%) (with the other 19 (roughly 40%) with renewal rates between 66% and 88%).

Tables 3 and 4 present comparative data across law schools in different USNews rankings categories. Table 3 describes the number of law schools with conditional scholarship programs and the distribution of scholarship retention rates among law schools. Table 4 describes the total number of students within each USNews rankings category along with the number of students on conditional scholarships and the number of students who had their conditional scholarship reduced or eliminated.

Table 3: Scholarship Retention Rates by USNews Ranking Categories

Category

Top 50

51-100 (n=53)

104-146 (n=44)

Unranked (n=51)

Schools with Conditional Scholarship Programs

16

37

35

47

Retention Rates of 90% or More

8

8

6

5

Retention Rates of 66%-88%

4

22

13

19

Retention Rates of 65% or Less

4

7

16

23

Table 4: Number and Percentage of First-Year Students in 2012 by USNews Rankings Categories Having Conditional Scholarships and Having Conditional Scholarships Reduced or Eliminated

Top 50 Law Schools (n=50)

Law Schools Ranked 51-100 (n=53)

Law Schools Ranked 104-146

(n=44)

Law Schools Ranked Alphabetically (n=51)

Number (%) of Law Schools with Conditional Scholarship Programs

16 (32%)

37 (70%)

35 (79.5%)

47 (92%)

Total First-Years at These Law Schools

11,862

10,937

7,611

12,180

Number (%) of First-Years with Conditional Scholarships

1,587 (13.4%)

3,192 (29.2%)

3,247 (42.7%)

4,444 (36.5%)

Number (%) of Conditional Scholarship Recipients Whose Scholarships were Reduced or Eliminated

154 (9.7% of conditional scholarship recipients and 1.3% of first-years)

734 (23% of conditional scholarship recipients and 6.7% of first-years)

1,124 (34.6% of conditional scholarship recipients and 14.8% of first-years)

1,700 (38.3% of conditional scholarship recipients and 14% of first-years)

Overall, as shown in Table 5, the distribution of retention rates across law schools was as follows for the 2012-13 academic year: 18 law schools had retention rates less than 50%, 20 law schools had retention rates between 50% and 59.99%, 25 law schools had retention rates between 60% and 69.99%, 21 law schools had retention rates between 70% and 79.99%, 25 law schools had retention rates between 80% and 89.99%, and 27 law schools had retention rates of 90% or better.

Table 5 – Number of Law Schools with Conditional Scholarship Renewal Rates in Different Deciles

Renewal Category

Number of Schools

90% or More

27 (16 of which were ranked in top 100)

80%-89.9%

25 (12 of which were ranked in top 100)

70%-79.9%

21 (10 of which were ranked in top 100)

60%-69.9%

25 (8 of which were ranked in top 100)

50%-59.9%

20 (5 of which were ranked in top 100)

Less than 50%

18 (2 of which were ranked in top 100)

Notably, of the 52 law schools ranked in the top 100 with conditional scholarship programs, only two (four percent) had retention rates that were less than 50%, while 16 (nearly 31%) had retention rates of 90% or better. By contrast, of the 82 (of 95) law schools ranked 104 or lower with conditional scholarship programs, 16 (nearly 20%) had retention rates of 50% or less, while only 11 (roughly 13%) had retention rates of 90% or better.

In sum then, with several schools eliminating their conditional scholarship programs as of fall 2013, less than 50% of the law schools ranked in the top 100 (47 of 103 – nearly 46%) still had conditional scholarship programs, and of those, more than 27% (13 of 47) had retention rates for the 2012-13 academic year of 90% or better while less than 22% (10 of 47) had retention rates of 65% or less.

By contrast, as of fall 2013, more than 80% of the schools ranked below 100 (79 of 95 – roughly 83%) still had conditional scholarship programs, and of those, less than 12% (9 of 79) had retention rates for the 2012-13 academic year of 90% or better and nearly half (39 of 79 – roughly 49%) had retention rates of 65% or less.